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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23883901">Ritten in Blood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookOrSpectre/pseuds/SpookOrSpectre'>SpookOrSpectre</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Enigma Project [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Zootopia (2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ghosts, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Telepathy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:15:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,243</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23883901</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookOrSpectre/pseuds/SpookOrSpectre</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A string of vandalisms leaves Nick and Judy with a bad taste in their mouth. The list of impossibilities goes on and on in every case, and paint does not seem to be on the artist's palette. The two are in a race against time to stop the culprit before more are sacrificed to create grotesque "artwork."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Judy Hopps &amp; Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Enigma Project [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Omni Auro Cariorem</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>A/N: This story takes place after the events of "The Deerbrooke Devil,"</strong> <strong> part of the Enigma Project, though you won't necessarily have to read the previous stories to read this. Also, before anyone comments, the title is a pun, not a misspelling.</strong></p><p>
  <strong>Please <em>enjoy!</em></strong>
</p>
<hr/><p>The two were still confused about the directions they had just been given. That is, they had no idea why Clawhauser was giving them the directions to a nearby shopping mall. He had made what was apparently a pun, which he laughed at but failed to explain, and told them to "just go there." Now they were on the way to this mall, unsure what the mall security couldn't handle that they could.</p><p>"Maybe it's someone really small and slippery, and the… uhhh… family-sized mall cops can't quite get 'em?" Nick suggested. Judy shook her head.</p><p>"Slick, has anyone ever told you to shut your yap?" Judy retorted, finding his comment minorly amusing but majorly offensive.</p><p>He smirked.</p><p><em>Of course he smirked,</em> Judy thought.</p><p>"Clawhauser thought that it was funny, whatever it is," Nick said.</p><p>"Seemed like it. Maybe it's a naturalist."</p><p>"I'll let you have the tackling duties."</p><p>"Pfft, I will be tranquilizing anyone that tries to make their privates publics," she replied. She pulled the cruiser to the side of the street in front of the mall, and it became immediately clear why the police were needed; a mammal - a gray fox to be exact - was taunting the mall officers while staying outside of the mall's entrance, where they had no jurisdiction.</p><p>"You think we should just give him a warning?" Nick offered, figuring the fox couldn't possibly be up to anything more than simply being an imbecile.</p><p>"Yeah, probably," Judy agreed. They stepped out of the cruiser and were met with an odd statement that sent their brains grinding to a halt.</p><p>"Yeah call the cops! Tell them to send Nick and Judy! I'm not go- Oh my god! It's them! My heroes!" He shouted, running towards the two. They reflexively drew their tranq guns, not exactly comfortable with a suspect running straight at them.</p><p>"Stop right there! Don't move an inch!" Judy yelled. The fox flung his paws into the air and recoiled, fear immediately struck into him.</p><p>"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean-!"</p><p>"Get on the ground and put your paws on the back of your head!" Nick shouted. Their plans had changed rapidly; they didn't know what this young mammal was up to and they didn't want to take a risk to find out. The fox whimpered and did as he was asked. The two walked over to him, Nick keeping his tranq trained while Judy paw cuffed him. She stood him up and the two walked him over to the cruiser.</p><p>"Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening! You two are awesome! Sorry if I spooked you, I-"</p><p>"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law-" Nick started reading him his Miranda rights, winking at Judy. Now they knew what was going on, and they could both tell this was someone they would just need to scare a little, not punish. A trip to the precinct and an hour or so in a cell should do the trick.</p><p>The young fox's ears fell flat against his head as Nick continued with his rights, realizing that he was in deeper than he had intended. He was silent while Nick sat him down in the back seat, closing the door for the stunned fox. The two got back into their front seats and pretended to get "back to work as usual," ignoring the fox completely. Judy pretended to radio something back to the precinct, a random made-up code that was totally meaningless but intimidating nonetheless.</p><p>"I'm really sorry guys," the young male said.</p><p>They didn't respond.</p><p>"I just… I kinda don't have anyone right now and… you guys are like the only mammals I look up to…" he said. He let out a labored sigh and Nick started realizing where they had gone wrong. Judy flashed him a look of concern.</p><p>"It'll be ok, kid. I was in the same place a while ago, it's no fun…" Nick said.</p><p>"Sorry for throwing you in the car like that, we just didn't know what you were doing…"</p><p>"It's ok, I understand. I wasn't thinking," he said. The three shared an awkward silence as the car drove, the officers not sure what to do now that they had him in the back.</p><p>"So, you said you look up to us… you wanna be a cop?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm hopeful anyway."</p><p>"How about we take you with us today, see what it's like? You'll get to ride up here instead of back there," She offered with a smile.</p><p>"No way! Really?" He said, excited.</p><p>"Sure, why not?" Nick said. Judy pulled the cruiser over, Nick getting out to get the fox out of his cuffs and in between the two in the front seat. He marveled at the control panel and radio and looked to the two he was sitting between. He was slightly shorter than Nick but not by much.</p><p>"So what's your name?"</p><p>"Rodger, my friends call me Rodge," he said.</p><p>"What if I call you Rusty?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Ha! I've heard that you like nicknames… but why Rusty?" He asked.</p><p>"Your fur reminds me of old, rusty ironwork, red and gray," Nick said.</p><p>"Huh… you know what, I'm ok with that," Rodger said. "So what's on the docket for today?"</p><p>"Well, we were just on patrol, so, not much actually," Judy said. He nodded with a silent 'oh' on his lips. The radio suddenly crackled to life, Clawhauser's voice coming through.</p><p>"We've got a report of vandalism on fiftieth and dune, non-emergency but squad car requested," the bubbly voice said.</p><p>"WHopps on it," Nick said into the radio.</p><p>"Looks like we have something to do," Judy said as she changed course for the location Clawhauser sent to them. It was a gas station and convenience store, and it was in a seedier part of town. It didn't take very long to reach it, and when they arrived they found a fairly new though also rather disheveled establishment. A hippo left the building and started walking up to the officers as they stepped out of their cruiser.</p><p>"Hi officers, I hope this won't end up being a waste of your time, I know you don't normally respond to vandalism, but somebody really did a number on my shop," he said.</p><p>"No problem, it's what we're here for. Do you mind if our friend Rodger joins us?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Not at all. You lookin to be an officer Rodger?" The hippo asked politely, leading the three to the left side of his shop.</p><p>"Hopefully, but you know how it is," Rodger replied.</p><p>"Yeah. It's hard for foxes but you've got a good role model right next to you," he said. Rodger looked at Nick and quickly received an ear ruffle from the larger fox. They rounded the corner and immediately saw what had the hippo so concerned. Painted with incredible detail was a portrait of a calm grassy field, distant mountains framed by clouds and forests. It was beautiful, but it was done entirely in a deep red paint, a stark and unnerving contrast against the white-coated cinder block wall.</p><p>"Woah…" Judy said.</p><p>"That is not your typical graffiti," Rodger said.</p><p>"You've got a good eye, kid," Nick said, almost jokingly. <em>You'd have to be blind to think this was normal,</em> he thought. The young fox walked up to the mural and inspected it closely. The two officers just stood back and took in the masterpiece. It was below eye level for them despite being roughly two feet high, and it was probably five feet long.</p><p>"Must have been done by someone pretty short," Judy said.</p><p>"Yeah, very," Nick agreed.</p><p>"They did it with a brush too," Rodger concluded after his brief inspection, noting tiny lines on the surface of the paint. The officers barely even processed what he had said. There was no way this was done with a brush, they would have been caught.</p><p>"Any ideas? I've never seen something like this but it's not my job to look at graffiti…"</p><p>"I don't think we've seen anything like this either. Do you have any security cameras?" Nick asked. Rodger returned to the group.</p><p>"Sure, we can check the feeds in the back, but only the front-facing camera is any good at night," the store manager said as he led the three inside, bringing them to the stock room where a computer was showing the current security camera feeds. The hippo sat down and clicked on the folder that held recent videos. The north camera footage from last night was almost pitch black, and the three had no hope for it being useful. Judy sighed, and just as she did a car passed by, its headlight illuminating the wall.</p><p>"Try to find the next time a car passes by," she said. He fast-forwarded the video, and the next car passed roughly half an hour later. There was still nothing on the wall, so he kept going. After a few more, he started skipping hours at a time, finally finding a shot of the mural.</p><p>"There it is… now when did they make it…" the hippo said. He rewound the footage until they couldn't see it, and then he went forward again. Shortly after the flash with no mural a car passed, shedding light on a freshly painted mural.</p><p>"What time were those two shots taken?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Three-o-four A.M. and… three-eleven A.M… seven minutes," the hippo said, trailing off in disbelief.</p><p>"No way…" Rodger said. "There's no way someone painted that with a brush in seven minutes," he said. Nick left the stockroom and walked outside, back to the wall with the mural, Judy following close behind. He got close to the picture and noticed the same line pattern, like brush strokes, in the paint, but something was off about it. He scratched at it with his claw, and a crusted over outer layer flaked off to reveal a mushy inside, but it was all held together with small strands.</p><p>The smell reached his nose and he recoiled, gagging. He held back vomit, and Judy put a paw on his shoulder.</p><p>"Nick what?-"</p><p>"It's blood… it's fur, and blood, Judy."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Pares Morimur</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N: Chapter two! I'm liking the way I'm writing this story. I've got a pretty clear view of where I want it to go but no clear path to take it there, so I'm allowed more creative freedom here than I gave myself for my last stories <em>Peril </em>and <em>The Deerbrook Devil.</em></strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Anyways, <em>enjoy!</em></strong>
</p><hr/><p>The rabbit sat at her desk, nervous for the news she was awaiting. Nick understood fully and was perhaps even more anxious himself, but he couldn't help but feel like the results would be worth nothing to them. More analysis of the footage revealed nothing, and currently, the case was cold. Someone had killed a mammal, ground them into a pulp, then painted a fresco with their remains, and so far there was no chance of them getting caught. To add to it, they didn't even know who the victim was, not in the slightest, not until the test results came back.</p><p>"You think Rodger is gonna be ok?" Judy asked, figuring the fox might know a fox better.</p><p>"I don't know… I mean, remember when we saw our first body in that alley? We got over it pretty quick…"</p><p>"Yeah, but it wasn't… it wasn't like this," Judy said. Seeing what was left of a mammal plastered to a wall was a fairly horrific sight. Even though the two had arguably seen far worse, it was no less shocking. It was hard to get acquainted with mammalian mortality, especially when the end result was so unfamiliar. A mammal, a living, breathing thing, full of vibrancy, exuding the delicate complexity of life, but unwhole; reduced to its worthless and ugly constituents.</p><p>
  <em>We are all dust, and to dust we all shall turn.</em>
</p><p>A hyena then walked in front of their cubicle, knocking politely despite the fact the two could clearly see her.</p><p>"We've got the forensics result from that mural, it was a rat, Female, age seventeen. She went missing yesterday, was seen leaving school but never made it home. Her parents reported it to precinct twelve in little Rodentia at five-o-two PM last night," Vivian said, the hyena entering the two's cubicle to give the report to Judy. She opened it and flipped to the first page, sneering in disgust at the first line she read.</p><p>"Traces of organ tissue and bones? This creep literally ground her up?" She asked.</p><p>"Seems like it," Vivian said.</p><p>"No wonder it smelled so bad… I figured it was just the heat and time," Nick said.</p><p>"Any evidence for another mammal?" Judy asked.</p><p>"No, not yet at least. We're doing a few more DNA tests just to see if we can catch a bit of someone else but right now it's just Aubrey," Vivian said.</p><p>"Aubrey… poor girl," Judy said. Nick looked solemnly at the carpet.</p><p>"You guys don't have any leads?" Vivian asked.</p><p>"No, and I don't know if you heard, but somebody painted that thing in 7 minutes, and they might have even used a brush," Judy said.</p><p>"Maybe look for an artist?" Vivian wondered aloud.</p><p>"Might not be a bad idea… are there any art schools nearby?" Judy asked.</p><p>"There's St. Wolfgang's, it's only a few blocks away," Nick said.</p><p>"That's where I went," Vivian said, leaving the other two confused. "Before I went into CSI and forensics, that is," she added.</p><p>"Huh, didn't know you were an artist, Spots," Nick said.</p><p>"Well, barely… hopefully that'll lead you somewhere though," she said.</p><p>"Yeah, at least we've got something to do, thanks Viv," Judy said, the hyena nodding politely before heading back to the lab. The rabbit stood up, waving the fox on to go to the cruiser. Nick stood up and came with, soon finding himself in the car with her, heading to a school a few blocks away.</p><p>"You think this might be an enigma?" Nick asked.</p><p>"I've kinda had the feeling but you never know, and we gotta start somewhere either way. Do you think we should let Tanya and James know just in case?" She said.</p><p>"Yeah. I'll text Tanya right now, fill her in on some of the details," Nick said. Before he was done typing the car was stopped, a large and rather interesting building to the right of him. Black beams wove a spiderweb of steel, glass held between the strands in an intricate and erratic structure. Balconies and staircases inside were busy with mammals of all shapes and sizes. The two left the cruiser and approached the doors, looking for a desk or office of some kind to no avail.</p><p>"Excuse me," Judy said to a passing skunk, hoping to catch her attention.</p><p>"Huh? Oh! What uh, what can I do for you, officers?" She said, slightly flustered but ready for anything.</p><p>"We were just looking for an administrative office or something," Judy said.</p><p>"Oh! Sure, it's on the third floor at that end of the building," she said, pointing to the east side of the building.</p><p>"Great, thanks!" Judy said, Nick nodding to the skunk. She smiled and waved as she walked away and the two made their way to a grand spiral staircase, multiple sizes of steps for different sized mammals laid out on it. Judy hopped up the large steps while Nick trailed behind on the steps appropriate for his size. Judy stood triumphantly atop while Nick rushed his way to her, and she gave him no chance to catch his breath after he made it to the top. She started walking down the hall, the painting fox walking next to her.</p><p>They found themselves in a small lounge with a receptionist desk and what were apparently office spaces behind. The puma behind the desk gave them a slightly stunned look.</p><p>"Oh! Hello officers… what can I do for you?" She asked.</p><p>"We were just wondering if we could talk to an administrator about a recent vandalism incident," Nick said.</p><p>"Oh! Sure. Anyone in particular?" She asked.</p><p>"Just someone familiar with the faculty and departments," Judy said.</p><p>"Sure. I'll see if an academic counselor is available," she said, standing from the desk and walking back to the office space. A few seconds later she returned to lead them to an office lit dimly by warm white light, like a sunset. It had a small fern in the corner and a peaceful atmosphere, with a smiling antelope rising from behind a desk, walking around to greet them.</p><p>"Hi, how can I help you two?" He asked politely, pulling out chairs for them and inviting them to sit.</p><p>"Well, we had a very disturbing vandalism incident yesterday, and we wanted to find someone who could tell us something about who might have done it," Nick said, climbing up onto his chair. Judy hopped up onto hers.</p><p>"Well, that's too bad. Do you have a picture I can look at? I might be able to guide you to a professor with expertise in the area."</p><p>"Sure, but I will warn you, the graffiti was drawn in blood," Judy said.</p><p>"Now I understand why you're here… let me see, blood won't bother me much," he said. Judy took out her phone and handed it to him, the antelope putting on his glasses to see the small screen.</p><p>"Oh my… now I really understand why you're here. That's, well frankly I'd call it incredible if it weren't so disturbing… why don't you talk to Professor Clawklear, he should be able to help," he said, hoofing the phone back to her. "He's on the second floor, his office should be two-fifteen."</p><p>"Great, thank you!" Judy said. Nick waved and followed Judy as she made a quick exit. They fumbled their way down the stairs and walked quickly to the office they needed, finding an old lion reading a book at his desk. Judy knocked on the door and cleared her throat, the lion replying with a small hum or grunt of some kind, needing a moment to finish what he was reading. He set the book down and took off his glasses, smiling when he looked at the two.</p><p>"I see I've finally been caught for the gambling scheme I've been running, I guess you're here to take me away," he said jokingly.</p><p>"No Professor, we're here because we need your expertise," Judy said with a smile, appreciative of his lighthearted demeanor.</p><p>"Oh, well that's odd… what in the world could you possibly need me for? I'm no good with police work… I'll give it a try but don't expect any miracles," He said.</p><p>"Well, Doctor Clawklear, we've got a case of murder, someone used the remains of a mammal to paint a mural on the side of a gas station. We were wondering if you'd be able to tell us anything about the artist by looking at their work," Nick said. The lion frowned.</p><p>"That's terrible… let me see, I hope I'll be able to help," He said. Judy pawed him her phone and he took it, putting his reading glasses back on to inspect it. "My god… if I didn't know any better I'd say John Catstable, but he's been dead for almost two hundred years… I can't say I know anyone who can paint like this… sorry officers," he said solemnly.</p><p>"Oh… well, thank you for your time," Judy said, taking her phone back. The lion nodded slowly, upset that he was of no use when a mammal was dead.</p><p>"Don't let it bother you, prof, at the end of the say it's our job, not yours," Nick said.</p><p>"Of course… I just wish I could be more help," he said.</p><p>"That's quite alright Doctor Clawklear," Judy said. "Have a nice day."</p><p>"You too, and good luck with that case," the old lion said as the two left.</p><p>"Well that was an adventure," Nick said.</p><p>"Yeah, back to square one I guess," Judy agreed. They slowly descended the staircase and found a familiar face at the bottom. Rodger, the gray fox they had taken for a ride yesterday, was talking to the skunk that had directed them to the offices earlier. They walked up to say hello but were met with a more concerned look than they had anticipated.</p><p>"Woah, you ok Rusty?" Nick said as the fox turned to them with anxiety written all over him.</p><p>"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm ok… I just, Heather here told me she ran into you two and I just had to come find you, there's another vandalism, it's only a few blocks away from my house. It looks like blood again…"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Iustitiam Quarem</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N: This is the longest chapter I've written in a while! I'm gettin back into it. Peril and TDD were just a little too robotic, writing-wise. I think they turned out well, but they weren't a ton of fun or very challenging to write, and I'm excited about this story since it is challenging me. I have an idea of where this story is going, but no map to get there! Exciting times.</strong>
</p><p><strong>Anyhow, </strong> <strong> <em>enjoy!</em> </strong></p><hr/><p>"Oh my gosh, that is like my favorite drink!" She said in an attempt to flirt. The conversation had been going for a few volleys and they still hadn't reached any interesting topics. This was primarily due to the flirter, though she would never admit this. Taylor was a simple rat; she liked boys, and she would do whatever she could to get them.</p><p>"Never took you for a Yakermeiseter kinda girl," the flirtee said to Taylor. He wasn't interested in her, but still hadn't made his final judgment, and he needed something to say. He knew her as a typical party girl with a bad reputation for being a haughty harlot.</p><p>"Ha! Yeah, I get pretty crazy, I'll drink anything you put in front of me," she laughed. He smiled, unsure how to respond. He was one of the coolest rats in school, and she'd had her eyes on him for a while. Unbeknownst to her, but blatantly apparent to him, she was trying far too hard. His friend then walked over and distracted him, much to his relief. Taylor huffed and turned away from him, walking over to her friend, who was chatting with another rat.</p><p>"That asshole is just ignoring me," she lied.</p><p>"I've heard he's gay anyway," Kate replied sharply, a total lie that she had spread after the same rat rejected her. It wasn't completely unwarranted, as rumor had it that he had turned her down due to her weight and figure.</p><p>"Not to mention what Aubrey said about his dick," the other girl, Amy, said. Aubrey had been with nearly every male in school. In fact, at the very moment, she was out with some new boy toy that she would likely soon discard. That was the assumption anyway, with little else to explain why she wouldn't be at the party.</p><p>"Yeah but she's a freak, I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her," Kate said, not one to agree with the exposition of private information. She had still laughed when Aubrey started talking about it, especially the various gestures.</p><p>"That doesn't mean much considering how far you could probably throw that stick figure," Taylor said.</p><p>"Yeah, that girl needs to eat something every once in a while," Amy said.</p><p>"And not throw it up right after," Kate said. They shared a laugh, deep down jealous of the other rat's figure. The three assumed it was the reason she could pick up guys so easily.</p><p>"So you two had any luck?" Taylor asked the other two. They were all single at the moment.</p><p>"No," they both replied.</p><p>"You wanna just leave?"</p><p>"Yeah, this party is garbage anyway," Amy replied. The three set their red solo cups on whatever was nearest to them, trying their best to spite the hosts by doing so. They left the apartment and made their way down to the ground floor, fixated on their phones. Three rats, combing through their social media absentmindedly while they left safety to enter the night. They flipped and scrolled through their various feeds and notifications, reveling in the drama that they had all contrived.</p><p>They almost didn't notice when Amy was silently dragged into an alleyway, seemingly by the shadows themselves. She felt the pressure of the ground relieving her hindpaws of her weight, a pressure on her muzzle like none she had ever felt keeping her silent as her friends walked away. It took almost fifteen feet of walking for Kate to notice a lack of claw clicks behind her, and she turned around</p><p>"Woah… Amy?" She said. Taylor turned and the smirk from her phone was wiped clean from her face. A small noise, like a groan, escaped from the alleyway. The two looked at each other, wondering if they should risk themselves to help their friend.</p><p>"A-Amy?" Taylor said. Another peep. Taylor started to creep towards the alleyway, Kate following just behind. She turned on the flashlight on her phone and swept the white light through the black alley. Something above was dimly illuminated by the reflected light from the walls and ground. She swept the light over Amy, who was a couple of her body-lengths above the ground, motionless, like an angel descending from the sky. But she was not descending, and if her expression was any indication, she felt more like she was firmly in the grasp of hell than farewelling the kingdom of God. Kate screamed.</p><p>"AMY!" She squealed, wanting her friend to stop this cruel trick at once. Her voice was quickly silenced by a pressure on her throat and face. She grabbed at herself, trying to remove the invisible paws. Taylor started to run and was quickly thrown to the ground, feeling the pavement hit her chest and snout with a thump. Her phone shattered, plunging the alleyway into darkness once again. They were all kept from breathing by an invisible force, slowly drifting into an unwelcome sleep.</p><p>Once the three were unconscious the sewer cover was lifted from the ground, the living bodies gently floated through the opening. A figure, obscured by darkness, followed, climbing down the ladder. Mammal would be a correct yet misleading term for the monster that was currently silencing his prey. He trudged through the sewer, holding his wiry paw over the bodies like he was guiding a raft, one that floated on air. It was a short walk before they arrived at another ladder that lead back to the sewer that mammals called Zootopia.</p><p>It too was rife with refuse and sewage. The culture was a river of waste that drowned and consumed all who fell prey to its falsities. <em>Buy this and your friends will envy you. Wear this and your peers will drool over you. Do this and you will be respected. Say this and the misanthropic gods of right and wrong will pat your back.</em></p><p>…</p><p>The gray fox had just dumped a pile of bricks on the two's minds, but it lit a fire in their hearts. Another murder was unexpected and unacceptable, and they weren't going dilly dally.</p><p>"Where?" Judy asked immediately.</p><p>"Drive me, I'll show you," Rodger said. She nodded to him and they started walking out of the building. In seconds they were all piling into the cruiser.</p><p>"Did you call it in?" Judy asked as she started the engine.</p><p>"Yeah, I told the guy to get you two but he said something about procedure, so when Heather told me you guys were here I came running," he replied, Judy pulling the car into the street.</p><p>"Good choice," Nick said. A new crime scene was exactly what they needed, despite being the opposite of what they wanted.</p><p>"Is it the same picture?" Nick asked, wondering if the mammal was using a printing method or stamp of some kind</p><p>"No, it's a waterfall this time, it's bigger than the other one," he said.</p><p>"How big? Too big to be a rat?" Judy asked.</p><p>"No… well, not for a kinda big rat I guess," he said. It was a short drive before they were in front of a small shopping mall, only a few miles away from the previous site. They got out and Rodger lead the way.</p><p>"I noticed it as I was walking by, I haven't told anyone, figured we don't need a panic," he said, leading them to an alley with loading docks and dumpsters. Layed out over the dark brick was a glossy crimson picture of a waterfall in, again, immaculate detail. Even the current of the water as it flowed over the rocks was drawn with impeccable precision.</p><p>"This looks like the same culprit… unless this sort of thing is becoming popular," Nick said. Judy looked away to scan the environment, finding cameras facing almost every direction.</p><p>"Looks like we might be better covered here," she said.</p><p>"Huh?" Nick asked, not sure what she was talking about.</p><p>"The cameras, there are security cameras everywhere, we should-" she started, cut off by a strange sensation on her hindpaw. She lifted her foot to find the white fur smeared with blood. She wretched but quickly composed herself, looking at the sewer cover she had just stepped on. "Get a forensics team," she said, Nick quickly pulling out his phone. She looked over to Rodger, who was covering his mouth in shock, not realizing how fresh the scene was until then.</p><p>"We gotta take you home," Judy said, not sure who was going to do it.</p><p>"Wait… I… can I stay, and, just, watch?" He asked. He wanted more than anything to take part, or at least observe, this investigation. Judy huffed, not wanting to disappoint him but unable to really say yes.</p><p>"I know you want to be an officer, but we can't just let civilians in on a case like this," she said.</p><p>"I know… but… please?" He pleaded. She looked him in the eyes, not to challenge him, but to confirm to herself that he really did care.</p><p>"I'll ask the chief," she said. She took out her phone and dialed the Buffalo directly.</p><p><em>"If this is about the scene, forensics should be on the way,"</em> he answered, not exactly in a chatty mood.</p><p>"No, we've got a kit who wants to stay on scene for the investigation, he wants to be an officer. He's a fox, dropped out of school and he's waiting to get into the academy, he's not playing around. If you think there's any leniency in the rules, this would be the time to make an exception," she said.</p><p><em>"Hm… use your discretion, Hopps. I'll permit the risk of any legal issues, those will be your responsibility, but I will not permit risk to him,"</em> the chief said. She hung up and thought about it for a moment.</p><p>"Promise not to do anything stupid?" She asked the fox.</p><p>"I promise! I'll just stand and observe, and ask a question here and there," he said.</p><p>"Ok. There is a lot of nondisclosure type stuff, so just don't talk about anything that you see or hear, I'll let you stick around… how long till forensics gets here?" She asked Nick.</p><p>"They said half an hour," Nick replied.</p><p>"Do you want to find the security office while I tape off the scene?" Judy asked, not wanting to track blood indoors.</p><p>"Sure. Come on Rusty, let's go catch a murderer," he said. The two foxes left Judy to close off the area and went into the building, looking for someone who had access to the camera feeds. It was a rather small mall, with only one floor, but it was confusing to navigate nonetheless. Nick felt the pressure building as he walked, the seconds ticking by. He noticed a security guard, a black bear, and rushed over.</p><p>"Excuse me, we've got a crime scene in the loading docks, I need to see the security feeds," he said.</p><p>"Woah… yeah, I'll take you to the security office," the bear said.</p><p>"Why woah?" Nick asked as they started walking briskly.</p><p>"I was just there when I got off my shift last night, musta been four A.M. there was nothing back there," he said. He opened a white steel door that almost completely blended in with the wall around it and took them into a set of office spaces.</p><p>"Well, it's not your usual crime scene…" Nick said. The bear almost didn't want to know what that meant.</p><p>"These guys should be able to help you," he said as he showed them to a room with two mammals sitting in front of dozens of monitors.</p><p>"Thank you," Nick said as he entered the room.</p><p>"Hey officer, what can we do for you?" A pig asked, her voice relaxed, completely oblivious to the murder that had happened right under her nose.</p><p>"We gotta look over the camera feeds for the loading docks, there's been… a murder," Nick said. The pig and her partner, a bobcat, gasped.</p><p>"Oh shit…" the bobcat said. "I'll start pulling up last night's feeds… you have any idea on time?" He said.</p><p>"Not really, probably after midnight," Nick said.</p><p>"Wait, that security guard said he left at four last night and didn't see anything," Rodger said.</p><p>"Good catch," Nick said.</p><p>"So after four P.M?" The pig said.</p><p>"A.M," Rodger corrected. The two nodded and got to work pulling up the security footage from the night before. Soon enough the screens were filled with various views of the loading docks. Nick grunted.</p><p>"The sewer cover is in shadow," Rodger said. Only a portion of it was exposed to the lights, most of which were focused on the loading docks themselves. The wall was also mostly in shadow, but part of it was exposed. They watched as the videos were sped up, the time in the corner flying by. Then the image appeared on the wall, almost magically. They reversed the video and played it at normal speed, Nick getting closer to the monitor with the best view.</p><p>The drain cover slowly lifted and slid to the side, out further into the light, leaving the perpetrator in the dark. A few moments passed before what appeared to be a snake worked it's way into the light, halfway between the wall and the cover. It was dark, almost like ink flowing over the pavement. <em>It's the blood…</em> Nick thought. The illuminated portion of the wall then revealed how the painting was made; dark tendrils covered a portion of the wall, filling in the details of the painting too fast for the eye to see.</p><p>The pig, bobcat, and Rodger all looked to Nick, and he stared at the monitor with a sternness and severity that he could have only learned from Bogo himself. He sighed and walked to the door, locking it.</p><p>"The three of you are under temporary arrest until I notify you otherwise. Give me your phones, BlueTooth headsets, anything that you could use to communicate, and step away from the computer console," he said.</p><p>The three were terrified.</p><p>They all did as he said, taking out their phones and giving them to him, stepping away from the computer, and keeping their mouths shut tight.</p><p>"I am Agent Wilde of the Agency of Investigation and Internal Intelligence, operating under special agents Vecher and Miller. What you just witnessed is an instance of what we call an Enigma, a supernatural event. My team works to keep these phenomena secret to prevent public panic and to do everything we can to protect the public.</p><p>"Right now, I need you all to swear that you will never speak of what you just saw, or what I have told you. Failure to do this will result in severe legal and monetary penalties. Any questions?" He asked. They all shook their heads no.</p><p>"Ok, good. Now, I'll need you to save that footage to my phone and delete any copies on the computer. If anyone asks where the recordings went, you were directed by the police to delete it," he said. He handed his phone to the bobcat and he got to work getting the videos on the phone.</p><p>"Who… what…?" Rodger started.</p><p>"I can't tell you anything, sorry bud. It's not fun to keep secrets if that makes you feel any better," he said. He hadn't told them about the hush money yet, he was saving the best for last. The bobcat gave his phone back.</p><p>"You aren't gonna… like, hurt us-" the pig started.</p><p>"No, no, definitely not. The opposite, in fact. You get one-thousand dollars, and you get one-thousand dollars, and you get one-thousand dollars!" He joked, imitating Osprey Winfrey. They all looked at him like he had lost his mind.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"I'm paying you to keep quiet," he said as he started navigating his phone.</p><p>"Doesn't sound all too bad to me…"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Pulvis Sumus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was still slightly terrified. The car ride was almost silent, and Nick didn't know what to say either, though for slightly different reasons. Rodger had just discovered that role model was hiding terrible secrets, and the world was not what it seemed. Nick, on the other paw, didn't know how exactly he should engage in a heart-to-heart with a troubled young adult. He was still new to the whole emotions thing.</p><p>"This the place?" Nick asked as he eyed a house.</p><p>"Yeah," Rodger said, the other fox pulling the car into the driveway of a quaint suburban home. "Thanks for taking me home… well, and the thousand dollars," he said with a laugh.</p><p>"No problem, and hey, don't spend it all at once," Nick said, almost jokingly.</p><p>"How do I explain how I got it?" He asked.</p><p>"For your parents, just say the A3I needs you to keep a secret. Otherwise, say you won a lottery or something. Don't tell anyone about what you saw, seriously, not even your parents. Doctors, though, you can tell doctors. And, if you have anyone pressuring you to talk, someone that seems more than just curious, give me and Judy a call or report it to the A3I," Nick said.</p><p>"Ok," Rodger said, looking down at the check in his paws.</p><p>"Sorry we had to kick you out like this. You'll be one of our coworkers before you know it though, I believe in you," Nick said. Rodger smiled.</p><p>"Thanks dude… I guess I better get home."</p><p>"Yeah, cya around bud!" Nick said. He got out of the cruiser and waved as the officer drove away. Now he had to explain to his parents where he had been all day. He knocked on the door and his father opened it, smiling once he saw who it was.</p><p>"Well there you are, we're gonna eat dinner soon!" he said.</p><p>"Great, what're we having?" Rodger said, surprised that he wasn't angry.</p><p>"Chicken tacos. So what were you up to?" He asked as they went to the kitchen.</p><p>"Oh nothin…"</p><p>"Come on Rodge, getting dropped off by Nick Wilde, riding in the front seat of a police cruiser, sounds like something to me," he pressured, patting his son on the back. Rodger smiled, embarrassed slightly. <em>So that's why he's not angry.</em></p><p>"I was kinda shadowing them, I actually found another vandalism and I brought them to it," he said as they entered the kitchen.</p><p>"Cool man," his father said, proud despite his doubts. He started setting the table, his wife outside at the grill, preparing the chicken.</p><p>"Yeah… so have you guys changed your minds?" Rodger asked, sitting at the table.</p><p>"Well, we're still not a hundred percent, but it seems to be going pretty damn well so far, and you'll be doing better than crawling through shit all day," he said.</p><p>"Oh come on, you don't crawl through shit all day, you're a civil engineer."</p><p>"And that involves lots of time in the sewer."</p><p>Rodger rolled his eyes, but soon after realized that it might not be such a bad thing.</p><p>...</p><p>The sun was triumphant in the sky, beating down on everything in its sight. The blood on the wall was baking as it waited to be analyzed and cleaned. Judy stood in the taped off alley with a phone to her ear, alone, Nick having left to bring Rodger home. The case had suddenly gotten much more complicated.</p><p>"So we should get an A3I forensics team in here?" Judy asked the phone.</p><p><em>"Yeah, you don't want a ZPD team getting involved in an Enigma,"</em> James said, the deer alone in his office. The rabbit looked around at the sunlit loading docks.</p><p>"Yeah, I kinda figured… You have any advice or ideas?"</p><p>
  <em>"Well… use all the resources you have, get the national guard to sweep the sewers if you need to."</em>
</p><p>"Ugh, it just had to be the sewers…"</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah they're gross but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. You could try getting a psychometer first, seems like it might spiritual or psychic."</em>
</p><p>"Yeah, Nick was thinking the same about the psychometer… How's Tanya doing?"</p><p><em>"Well she's definitely not in any danger, and doctors say she'll be ok, but she's in a lot of pain. She probably won't be back to work for a month," </em>James said.</p><p>"Sweet cheese… to think a rake took her down," Judy said.</p><p>
  <em>"Well, some credit goes to the sixty-pound flamethrower."</em>
</p><p>"I still can't believe it."</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah… shit happens though.'</em>
</p><p>"Don't I know it… I better get going with this scene. Thanks for the help, talk to you later," Judy said. James said goodbye, and the call was over. She went to the communication app that Tanya had given her and found the A3I's forensics department.</p><p>
  <em>"Agent Hopps?"</em>
</p><p>"Yeah, hi, can I get a forensics team down to thirty-one and palm?"</p><p>
  <em>"Sure. Is this an Enigma?"</em>
</p><p>"Yes," she replied. The phone clicked, and she looked at it. "Well that was quick…"</p><p>"What was?" Nick asked, walking up to the rabbit, finally done getting Rodger off the scene.</p><p>"I called for a forensics team."</p><p>"ZPD or A3I?"</p><p>"A3I. James said to keep the ZPD out. He also suggested we get a psychometer again," She said.</p><p>"Huh. Did you ask about getting one over here?"</p><p>"No, you think I should?"</p><p>"Never hurts. It would be better than having to go back to Tri-Pen, that's for sure," Nick said.</p><p>"I guess I'll call back… don't know who to call, though," Judy said. She started rummaging through the list of departments. She decided on the special activities division.</p><p><em>"Agent Hopps! What's happenin?" </em>A happy voice said.</p><p>"Uh… well, not much, you know, just a crime scene... I'm calling because we need a prisoner for their abilities, do you think you could have them brought to us?" Judy asked.</p><p>
  <em>"Huh… not sure. If we get an agent to do it, sure, otherwise it might get weird legally, with them being a prisoner and all. You know anyone who might be up for it?"</em>
</p><p>"Well, the only one I could think of is Agent Miller."</p><p>
  <em>"Ok. I'll give him a call and see what he says."</em>
</p><p>"Sounds good, thank you," Judy said, hanging up. "They'll talk to James, they'd need an agent to do it."</p><p>"Hopefully they can figure that out quick, I don't want to waste any more time," Nick said, walking over to the sewer cover. His eyes were barely good enough to see through the hole into the darkness below.</p><p><em>"Help!.."</em> A distant voice called out. He recoiled.</p><p>"Woah, did you hear that?" He asked. Judy looked at him quizzically.</p><p>…</p><p>The wolf shot up from the couch, gasping for air, her nap rudely interrupted. The snow leopard in the chair across from her stared, wide-eyed, over her phone.</p><p>"You doin alright?" Tanya asked, startled and slightly confused. Clare took a moment to catch her breath.</p><p>"Hoh... yeah, just a nightmare," the wolf said, clutching her chest, her heart pounding. "Phew! That freaked me out…"</p><p>"Was it hell again?" Tanya asked, a strangely commonplace phrase for the two at this point.</p><p>"Uh… yeah? I think so… I don't really know," Clare said, looking around as if the answer was woven into the fibers of the carpet.</p><p>"Well, what happened?" Tanya asked, curious now.</p><p>"I'm not really sure… I was held in place, wasn't chained up or anything I just couldn't move… there was a wall in front of me, I don't know if it was brick, or cobblestone, or what... it was kinda amorphous, you know? Then this blood - well it looked like blood anyway - like a shiny red liquid started creeping towards it. It started coming together, like tree roots, and I woke up before I saw what it made."</p><p>"What it made?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"Well, yeah, like…" Clare started, unsure where she got the idea that it was making something. "Kinda looked like it was making a picture. It made a rectangle and there were some shapes in it," she said. That struck Tanya, not hard enough to make her gasp, but enough to make her look at her phone.</p><p>"Huh…" she said, deep in thought.</p><p>"What?" Clare asked, wondering what the cat was thinking.</p><p>"James told me that Nick and Judy were on a case where someone was painting murals… with blood," she said, dumbfounded. Clare furrowed her brow, confused but terrified of the implications. <em>Must be a coincidence…</em> the wolf thought, a weak reassurance. "You've never, like… experienced precognition or ESP before, have you?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"A who what?"</p><p>"Precognition, seeing things before they happen, or knowing things you couldn't possibly have learned…"</p><p>"No…" Clare said, feeling sick to her stomach. She knew all too well how knowledgeable Tanya was, and hearing her ask questions like that made her head spin.</p><p>"What about ESP? Extrasensory Perception… saw things others couldn't, felt things, like a presence…"</p><p>A shiver ran down Clare's spine.</p><p>"Tanya, you're creeping me out!" The wolf said. She was not in the mood for discovering an ability to communicate with the dead.</p><p>"It's ok Clare… have you?" She asked.</p><p>"No! God no! Or at least I hope not! Yeesh!" She said, wringing her paws. The thought was unpleasant.</p><p>"It's alright! just take a deep breath…" Tanya said. She returned her focus to her phone and hoped the canine would be able to calm herself down.</p><p>"What are you doing?" She asked Tanya.</p><p>"I'm texting James, just letting him know."</p><p>"Ok… ugh, I guess anything is possible. If I did have some sort of special... <em>thing</em>… what would that mean? Like, what would I do?"</p><p>"You'd probably help Nick and Judy with their case."</p><p>"Oh! Well, that's not that bad!"</p><p>"Yeah… um… you'd probably have to crawl through the sewers," Tanya said. Clare's ears went flat against her head.</p><p>…</p><p>She woke up, the smell of blood the first thing that met her. She opened her eyes but her vision didn't change. It was utter blackness, wherever she was. She started breathing heavily, the last thing she remembered was being dragged into an alleyway by an invisible force and choked into unconsciousness. Something shuffled next to her.</p><p>"Taylor?" Someone said, someone familiar.</p><p>"Amy?" She asked back. At least she wasn't alone.</p><p>"Oh thank god! I thought you were dead Taylor," Amy said, on the verge of tears.</p><p>"What's going on?" Taylor asked.</p><p>"I don't know! Some... monster kitnapped us and he… he killed Kate, he said he killed Aubrey too!"</p><p>"Oh god…" Taylor said, realizing pretty quickly that they were probably next. The way she was looking around - vacant, pale eyes wandering - made Amy uneasy.</p><p>"Can you see?" She asked.</p><p>"No, why?" Taylor replied, growing concerned. Amy didn't know how to tell her.</p><p>"I… it's nothing, just…"</p><p>"What? What's wrong?"</p><p>"Your eyes are… they're all cloudy and fucked up," Amy said. Taylor started panicking, breathing heavily and reaching for her eyes with a whimper. "Taylor! Tay! Stop!" She said, knowing that her friend was just wasting her breath.</p><p>"Where are we? What does it look like?"</p><p>"It's like… an old factory, it's close to the harbor. It's daytime right now… there's a puddle of blood n- next to us," she said, sobbing immediately after finishing the sentence.</p><p>"Amy who… who's blood?"</p><p>"ITS KATE'S!" She shouted, unable to control her voice. A shiver went down Taylor's back, and tears welled in her eyes. "I SAW IT HAPPEN!" She yelled.</p><p>"Stop screaming! He'll come back!" Taylor said through sobs.</p><p>"He's coming back anyway! He fucking ground her to a pulp with his mind! He's fucking telepathic! Nobody's gonna be able to stop him!"</p><p>Suddenly a door slammed in a distant corner of the building. The two scurried together, holding each other close. The only sound in the entire structure was their breathing. The blind rat buried her muzzle into her friend's chest, hoping that she could somehow protect her. Amy watched as the figure quietly, slowly crept through the building, walking over to the two. She held Taylor closer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Impares Nascimur</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Hear what?" She asked back.</p><p>"I heard someone yelling from the sewer…" Nick said. Judy's eyes nearly popped out of her head, and she walked over to the cover. "Hello!?" Nick shouted. Again, faintly, he heard a voice. He looked at Judy, who gave him a weird look.</p><p>"You heard something again?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Yeah! Can't you?" Nick asked. There was no way he was hearing something that Judy wasn't.</p><p>"Is this some kind of trick, slick?" Judy asked, figuring she had caught him in the act.</p><p>"No! I can hear someone down there, Fluff!" He said. <em>I must be losing my mind! </em>He thought.</p><p><em>He must be losing his mind…</em> Judy thought.</p><p>"I can't hear anything… are you ok, Nick?"</p><p>"Apparently not!" Nick said, starting to worry himself. Judy's phone then started vibrating, and she answered it, hoping that Nick wouldn't completely lose his mind while she took a call.</p><p>"Hello?"</p><p><em>"Hey, its Tanya, I heard you needed a psychometer,"</em> Tanya said. A lightbulb went on in Judy's head, and she looked at Nick. <em>No way…</em></p><p>"I think I might have one," she said.</p><p>
  <em>"Wait, really? Then why is everyone bothering me-"</em>
</p><p>"No, hold on. We are on this scene, and Nick is saying that he can hear a voice from the sewer that I can't."</p><p><em>"Is he just going crazy? Cause there's no way- Wait! The psychometer I wanted to bring was Clare! What if…" </em>Tanya said, trailing off.</p><p>"What if what?"</p><p><em>"Hold on…" </em>she said, thinking.</p><p>"Tanya what..?"</p><p><em>"Shush!"</em> She said, gasping soon after. <em>"What if Clare and Nick gained psychic abilities after they went to hell!"</em> Tanya wondered aloud. Judy's face twisted into a mixture of confusion of concern.</p><p>"That would be… interesting," Judy said.</p><p>
  <em>"It would be perfect! I'll bring Clare over, thirty-one and palm right?"</em>
</p><p>"Yeah… but aren't you-?" Judy started, the phone beeping mid-sentence. "Injured…"</p><p>"What was that all about?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Tanya thinks you and Clare have psychic abilities, so she's bringing Clare over," Judy told him.</p><p>"Psychic? I'm not… Wait, Isn't she-?"</p><p>"Injured? Yeah, apparently not enough," Judy said, shaking her head.</p><p>…</p><p>"Really! I'll be right there!... Wait, where were they?" Tanya asked the phone, on the edge of her seat.</p><p><em>"Tanya you can't, you're too hurt!" </em>James said.</p><p>"Just tell me where!" She said, too excited to miss the opportunity. Clare was facepawing from the couch the whole time. She knew what this meant.</p><p><em>"Ugh… the loading docks of the mall on thirty-one and palm…"</em> James said.</p><p>"Great!" Tanya said, hanging up. She dialed Judy.</p><p><em>"Hello?" </em>The rabbit said.</p><p>"Hey, its Tanya, I heard you needed a psychometer," Tanya said. There was a short pause.</p><p><em>"I think I might have one,</em>" Judy said.</p><p>"Wait, really? Then why is everyone bothering me-" Tanya started, Judy cutting her off.</p><p><em>"No, hold on. We are on this scene, and Nick is saying that he can hear a voice from the sewer that I can't," </em>she said. Tanya's face twisted slightly.</p><p>"Is he just going crazy? Cause there's no way- Wait! The psychometer I wanted to bring was Clare! What if…" she said, trailing off as a thought crept into her head.</p><p>
  <em>"What if what?"</em>
</p><p>"Hold on…" she said, thinking. The thought was slowly squeezing its way into her head, like a piece of jello sliding through a mold.</p><p>
  <em>"Tanya what..?"</em>
</p><p>"Shush!" She said, gasping as the thought plopped down onto her brain. "What if Clare and Nick gained psychic abilities after they went to hell!" Tanya wondered aloud.</p><p><em>"That would be… interesting,"</em> Judy said, sounding unconvinced.</p><p>"It would be perfect! I'll bring Clare over, thirty-one and palm right?" Tanya said, unable to control her excitement.</p><p><em>"Yeah-" </em>was all she heard before she hung up.</p><p>"Ok, let's go! You can drive, can't you?" She asked Clare.</p><p>"Well, yeah, but what about you! Your arm and leg are all screwed up!"</p><p>"Oh pfft, my arm isn't that bad, and I designed a thing for my leg. It's kinda like a prosthetic, I don't really know what to call it, but it lets me walk just fine! Come on, let's go!" Tanya said. Clare facepawed as Tanya hopped on her good leg to a cabinet. She retrieved a strange looking device and put it on her leg, the contraption attaching itself from her hip all the way to her ankle, a bent piece of metal at the end to support her weight.</p><p>"Ok, that's kinda cool…" Clare said, impressed with the mechanical device.</p><p>"I've always gotta trick up my sleeve… aw, crap, missed opportunity… if it went under the pant leg I coulda said: or in this case, in my pants," Tanya said with a laugh.</p><p>"Isn't that more of a male thing to say?"</p><p>"Females can say inappropriate things about their pant-contained… things!" Tanya defended.</p><p>"Well, maybe if you're a hyena, yeah."</p><p>"Ha! Yeah, what a trick that would be! Could you imagine? Like seriously, imagine, like, being a male wolf, with no idea about the whole pseudopenis thing, and you're having a good time with some cute hyena and suddenly she whips it out on you!" Tanya said, cracking herself up over the thought.</p><p>"God, let's just go before you say something even weirder," Clare said, trying to usher Tanya to the garage.</p><p>"Oh come on, it's funny!"</p><p>…</p><p>"I am not crazy, Carrots!" Nick said.</p><p>"Then why are you hearing voices?"</p><p>"You heard Tanya, I'm psychic!"</p><p>"Oh pfft, why would it only show up now?" Judy asked. He was slightly flustered.</p><p>"Well, because of the case, and the spiritual energy of the scene and… I don't know, Fluff! Why <em>aren't </em>YOU psychic?" Nick asked. Judy was utterly confused, waving her paws around, the flusterer becoming the flusteree. Suddenly a van with the insignia of a cleaning company plowed through the police tape, stopping in the alley.</p><p>A group of mammals in janitorial clothes stepped out. Nick and Judy were completely lost for words, but soon realized it was the A3I forensics team. The group got to work quite quickly; a cheetah with a camera started taking pictures everywhere, two antelopes getting to work on the mural, and a raccoon approaching them.</p><p>"Hi, Agent Dan Lesexiong, nice to meet you," he said as he extended a paw. The two shook it and introduced themselves.</p><p>"Agent Judy Hopps."</p><p>"Agent Nick Wilde."</p><p>"I've heard a lot about you guys, terrible things of course," he said with a smile, making the two chuckle. "So what's going on here?" He asked.</p><p>"This is the second vandalism where someone seems to have ground up a mammal and painted a picture with the remains," Nick said. "We just got our first clue; apparently whoever is doing this is using the sewers to get around."</p><p>"Interesting. So we should probably look over the sewers too?" Dan asked.</p><p>"Maybe. We have… uhh… someone coming to help with the sewers… maybe." Judy said, figuring Tanya would want something to do with it.</p><p>"I'd imagine you can't tell me?"</p><p>"Probably?" Judy said, unsure.</p><p>"Your guys' job is so confusing," the raccoon said. One of the antelopes walked over, a device of some kind in her hoof.</p><p>"DNA test came back, it's a rat, female, age eighteen, her name's Kate Reginald. She was reported missing at one A.M. yesterday," the antelope said. Judy and Nick were too caught in the moment to focus on how quickly they had performed a DNA test.</p><p>"Not last night but the night before… that's two hours before the first vandalism. Nick, when was the first victim reported missing?" Judy asked.</p><p>"I think it was five P.M…" he said.</p><p>"So the vandalisms took place within a few hours of each other one day apart, and two of the mammals went missing the same day... Are there any other rats reported missing? Any connections between the two victims?" Judy asked. The raccoon took out his phone and started searching.</p><p>"Yeah… there's two other rats from the same school missing, Little Rodentia's high school, the other rats are Taylor Panelli and Amy Roberts, both seventeen, reported missing with Kate. Social media says… the four were friends, all of them except for Aubrey went to a party the night they were reported missing. Aubrey didn't make it to the party," Dan said.</p><p><em>They're probably going to make the next mural early tomorrow morning, </em>Judy thought. Tanya's car then pulled up, the snow leopard excitedly stumbling out while Clare slowly stepped out.</p><p>"<em>Help</em> has arrived," Nick mumbled, the injured special agent hobbling over.</p><p>"Hi guys! Good to see you!" She said, Clare walking up to her side. It was odd seeing Tanya in sweatpants and a t-shirt, and the device on her leg made it all the more unusual.</p><p>"Good to see you too…" Judy said, confused, staring at the brace.</p><p>"Oh! I made a thing for my leg, I can walk just fine now," she said, pointing to the device. Clare was staring into the distance behind Judy.</p><p>"Huh… well, you're already out here, so that's already done. Good to see you, Clare!" Judy said to the blanked out wolf. Clare didn't respond, she just started walking to the sewer cover.</p><p>"Clare?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"I can hear them…" she said. Nick walked over and listened with her; he could still hear it too. The two canids looked at each other and back at the other two.</p><p>"We should probably get out of here, shouldn't we?" The raccoon asked, Tanya absentmindedly nodding. The two psychics returned their focus to the sewer.</p><p><em>How are we gonna get the cover off?</em> Nick thought.</p><p>"I don't know," Clare said. Nick looked at her.</p><p>"I didn't say that," he said. Tanya was excited but Judy was confused.</p><p>"I knew it!"</p><p>"I kinda knew it… but why?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Who knows! This shit is super mysterious, but I'm too excited to think about it," Tanya said, stumbling over.</p><p>"So, how are we gonna get the cover off?" Nick asked, out loud this time. Tanya put her free paw to her chin, the other arm in a sling. <em>I could probably still lift it…</em> she thought. She walked over to it and got two fingers in the hole in the middle.</p><p>"Tanya!" Clare complained. The snow leopard was in no condition to do this.</p><p>"I'm fine, I can do it!"</p><p>"Tanya, you have one arm and one leg, how the hell do you expect to do this?" Judy complained. Tanya started pulling.</p><p>"I Gotit!" She said, straining. The other three facepawed as she changed her position, instead straddling the cover, a leg on either side, her stance stretching a majority of her body length. She bent down and grabbed the hole in the middle again, a feat of flexibility and balance on its own, not to mention from someone with a broken leg. Her tail flicked about as she prepared to pull, and the other three marveled at her figure, the sweatpants and brace doing little to hide her toned legs and glutes.</p><p>"My God, she's gotta take me to the gym some time," Clare hoped.</p><p>"She's gotta give me some tips," Judy gushed.</p><p>"And when you're all done, you three should make a calendar," Nick quipped. The two females next to him smacked him on the back of the head. The sewer cover easily left its seat in the pavement, and Tanya gave a grunt as she heaved it forward, leaving the hole open for the four. She panted and straightened up, turning to the three. She cocked her head slightly but quickly realized what they were looking at and covered herself with her tail.</p><p>"Guys!" She whined, embarrassed though admittedly flattered. The three closed their mouths and shifted their focus to her eyes. "Ha! You creeps! Clare, you're like my daughter at this point! Judy, your boyfriend is right there! Got something to tell him? Nick, you!... well, I guess I can't really criticize you," Tanya said.</p><p>"See, I have an excuse," Nick said with a smirk. The others smacked him again.</p><p>"So are we gonna get in the sewer or not?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"Oh god… we have to, don't we?" Clare said.</p><p>"If you want these rats to have a chance, we better," Nick said.</p><p><em>She did warn me about this</em>, Clare thought.</p><p>"Yeah, you're ready, come on," Judy said, having heard Clare's thought. Clare was astonished but the other three seemed not to notice, Tanya already starting to climb down. The ladder was definitely made for larger mammals, the set of bars more like a gymnastics puzzle for Nick and Judy. Eventually, Tanya was at the bottom, waiting, Clare stuck above the two.</p><p>"Put your foot… no, here," Judy said, trying to direct Nick.</p><p>"Ok… where're your paws?" Nick asked.</p><p>"I'm-"</p><p>"Oh just jump, I'll catch you!" Tanya said, impatient.</p><p>"Ok, Ms. One-arm-wonder!" Judy chided.</p><p>"Come on, we don't have all day," Clare said from above.</p><p>"Everybody calm down," Nick said.</p><p>"No!" The three chorused back.</p><p>"Come on, I can catch you," Tanya tried to convince them. Judy sighed and let go of the ladder, Tanya catching her between her paw and her tail, Nick soon following. Clare made it to the bottom and the four stood around for a moment, Judy and Tanya waiting for the two to do something.</p><p>"Hello?" Nick asked.</p><p><em>"Over here!" </em>A distant voice whispered. The two canids looked at each other and gulped, turning towards the dark tunnel.</p><p>"This way I guess," Nick said. They all took out their phones and turned on the flashlights, except for Tanya. She pulled a massive flashlight out of her arm sling, lighting the tunnels like the sun.</p><p>"A hundred watts. Always come prepared," she said with a smirk. The four started walking, staying along the raised platform next to the river of sewage. The smell was surprisingly mild, still gross, but too faint to be truly offensive. Tanya's light served them well, and there was no darkness in front of them, only behind.</p><p><em>"Help, this way!" </em>The voice continued. Tanya and Judy followed as the two psychics lead the way. Judy turned around and could swear she saw something shift in the darkness, but she ignored it, figuring it was just the shadows dancing.</p><p>"Who are you?" Clare asked the distant voice.</p><p><em>"It's Kate,"</em> it replied.</p><p>"Kate… my god," Nick gasped.</p><p>"Who's that?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"The last victim," Judy replied.</p><p>"Oh… I'm sorry about what happened to you, Kate," she said, her voice echoing.</p><p>"She said 'just save my friends, please,'" Nick repeated for the spirit.</p><p>"We will," Judy affirmed. They continued to walk through the underground tunnels, guided by a spirit of a young rat, unsure where they were going.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Pulverem Reverterimus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The four kept their slow pace through the Zootoptian sewer system. The plan was to continue until Tanya's flashlight ran out of battery, then they would simply have to switch to their phones. The catch was that there was no way of knowing when they would be plunged into darkness. All Tanya knew was that her flashlight was too powerful to run very long. The two listened and followed intently as their psychic guides took them through the labyrinth.</p><p>"Ew," Judy said quietly, a huge - for normal standards - spider on the wall. Tanya stopped and looked at it for a moment. "Don't you dare…" Judy said.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"You're gonna eat that thing, aren't you… it's the size of my head."</p><p>"Yeah, I'll pass this time… I don't want to take my chances on something that can fight back," Tanya said. Judy let out a relieved sigh and shivered as the creature crawled into the darkness left behind by Tanya's light.</p><p>"Come on, let's keep moving," Nick called to the two. They continued to creep forward, occasionally turning at an intersection of tunnels. Tanya figured it would be a good time to get more information.</p><p>"So who's doing this?" Tanya asked the emptiness, a reverberating echo replying. Judy watched as shadows danced on the edge of her vision, the dark walls behind them a blank canvas for her mind.</p><p>"It's another rat, she thinks," Nick said.</p><p>"She's not sure, he's really… deformed," Clare said.</p><p>"Huh," escaped Tanya, the cat wondering if that had something to do with the individual's abilities. "Do you know where your friends are?" She asked, a few seconds of silence reigned before Nick relayed what Kate said.</p><p>"She only knows the way he moved her remains through the sewer. He killed her in front of her friends the moment she woke up, she didn't pay attention to where she was until after he had gotten to the sewer," he said. There was a brief pause in conversation and the four crept on. Judy then got the nerve to ask a question that had been eating at here from the start.</p><p>"Are we the only ones down here?" She asked. Fear crept into each one of them with the thought of unknown company and darkness suddenly enveloped them, Tanya's batteries failing. They stood, motionless, shocked, before slowly reaching for their phones. Judy reached down and felt another paw on her pocket. She looked down to see the shadow of a rat, a ghostly nothingness in the already pitch-black tunnel. She gasped and the apparition disappeared.</p><p>"You ok?" Tanya asked as Judy coughed and caught her breath, a light from Nick's phone dimly illuminating the four.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm ok, I just saw… something. I think it was Kate, she was touching my leg," she said, trying to hold back another bout of coughs.</p><p>"Was that you, Kate?" Tanya asked the tunnels. A few seconds passed, and the two canids started looking around.</p><p>"Kate?" Clare asked the darkness. It was perhaps the first time in her life she had hoped there was a ghost nearby.</p><p>"Kate?" Nick asked.</p><p>"You guys aren't hearing her?"</p><p>"No… hello!" Nick shouted. "What the hell happened?" He asked. Tanya looked around for a moment, thinking. The three watched as she rubbed her chin and scratched the back of her neck.</p><p>"I think she might have crossed over, but I don't know…" she said, unsure where the rat could have gone.</p><p>"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Can we get out of the sewer?" Clare asked. It sparked a thought in Tanya.</p><p>"Maybe this is where we're supposed to be," she said, giving a renewed energy to the group. Tanya followed the other three as they swept their phone lights over the ceiling, looking for another maintenance hole. They found one only a few feet from where they stood and Tanya started climbing first, the only one of the group strong enough to remove the cover.</p><p>The ladder shuddered and clinked as the cat climbed, her leg brace banging against it. She made it to the top and looped one of her hindpaws through the rungs to steady herself, her only good arm being used to remove the cover. She put her paw to it and pushed, the heavy steel plate barely budging. She gave it a shove, dislocating it from its seat, and started pushing it aside. The sound of chatter and music filled the air, and she wondered what the hell they had stumbled upon.</p><p>The wedding guests watched, stunned, as the cover was pushed out of the way by a white paw, a snow leopard with her arm in a sling slowly crawling out. She stood up and looked around, stunned, while the other three crawled out. Nobody was any less confused as two officers made it to the top.</p><p>"Hi, John…" Tanya said meekly to one of the stunned celebrators. The wolf cocked his head and gave a small wave.</p><p>"Sorry…" Judy said, the group of mammals giving various shrugs and sounds of indifference. Tanya put the sewer cover back on and they all quietly walked out of the open-air venue.</p><p>"Are you guys also getting the feeling that we aren't in the right place?" Judy asked once they were across the street. They were still in Savannah central.</p><p>"You must be psychic," Nick joked.</p><p>"If this isn't the place, what happened to Kate?"</p><p>"She must have crossed over," Tanya said. She didn't have another explanation. The group stood motionless, hitting a collective brick wall.</p><p>"If that's what happened, then what's the plan?" Judy asked.</p><p>"Maybe we could map out the sewers and compare the locations of the scenes, see if there's any correlation," Tanya suggested.</p><hr/><p>The rag-tag team of four entered the ZPD, the officers struggling to explain the presence of the wolf and cat in sweatpants and t-shirts. They eventually resorted to "A3I business" and worked their way to the office spaces. They told the two larger mammals to grab chairs from the other cubicles and they all sat around the computer as Judy looked up a map of the sewer system. Eventually, she came across the government's utility layout map.</p><p>"Woah," Judy said. It was <em>very</em> complex.</p><p>"Man… even the subways don't have that many colors," Tanya said, looking at the technicolor maze.</p><p>"Ok, we gotta start somewhere. It's a rat, right? They must have access somewhere in Little Rodentia," Nick said. Judy nodded and zoomed into Little Rodentia and they were heavily relieved. The map was much clearer, showing what each line represented without everything overlapping constantly. There were a few X marks throughout the area, indicating access covers.</p><p>"There's only like six," Clare said.</p><p>"Yeah… where was the party the three were at?" Judy asked aloud. Nick took out his phone and started looking, the other three waiting on him.</p><p>"It was… it was right here," he said, pointing to the place on the monitor. A short distance away from his claw was a maintenance cover, situated in an alleyway.</p><p>"That's where the guy got those three rats," Clare said.</p><p>"Ok, write the location of that cover down Nick, we better check it out," Judy said. She then zoomed out and Clare gasped, the other three turning to her.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Don't you guys see that?" She asked.</p><p>"See what?" Judy asked. Before anyone had time to react, Tanya grabbed a pen and paper from the desk.</p><p>"Draw it," she told the wolf. Clare immediately gestured for Judy to get out of the way and put the paper on the computer monitor, beginning to outline a strange, jumbled, maze-like structure. After only a few seconds it began to take shape; Clare was drawing a forest. Suddenly she stopped. After a few seconds, she pulled the paper away from the screen.</p><p>"What?" She asked herself.</p><p>"Is that what you saw?" Tanya asked.</p><p>"Yeah, but it… I don't know, it wasn't this clear, like, this is obviously a forest, what I was seeing was just… something kinda overlayed with the map," she said.</p><p>"What does it mean?" Judy asked Tanya.</p><p>"I don't know… in terms of what it means for Clare, I think… I think she's, ha! She's Clare-voyant!" Tanya said, realizing the irony mid-sentence.</p><p>"What?!" The wolf exclaimed, stunned.</p><p>"I think you can see the future. I'll bet that tomorrow we'll wake up and there'll be a forest drawn in blood somewhere," Tanya said. The wolf looked at the drawing with horror.</p><p>"But where?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Put the thing up against the screen again," Tanya said, Clare doing so after coming back to her senses. They stared at the overlaid lines for a few minutes before sighing.</p><p>"Looks like a bunch of lines to me," Nick said.</p><p>"Well, if it is a forest, then at least we'll have something," Judy said.</p><p>"Yeah… I'd hate to be clairvoyant <em>and</em> useless, that'd <em>really</em> suck."</p><p>"Is there really nothing else we can do? We're just gonna wait until another rat gets plastered over a wall?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Unless someone comes up with an idea, I think that's what we'll have to do," Tanya said, cringing.</p><p>"It is getting late…" Judy noted.</p><p>"How about dinner?" Clare asked. They all nodded to each other.</p><p>"So, where are we gonna go?" Nick asked as they all stood to leave the office.</p><p>"Somewhere with spicy things and fish," Clare said. Nick and Tanya agreed on fish, Judy figuring she'd be able to get a salad regardless of where they went. They decided on a fast food restaurant popular for their fish tacos and spicy peppers. Clare had a thing for spicy food, unreasonably spicy food, and the other three were shocked to hear her order a fish taco with habanero peppers.</p><p>"I hate it when you do this," Tanya said, more playfully than anything.</p><p>"They're tasty!" She retorted. They made their way from the counter and sat in a booth that was decidedly the cleanest in the establishment.</p><p>"How can you eat that? I'd be crying for like hours," Judy asked.</p><p>"You just gotta work your way up to it. Once you can eat a dish chock full of fresh jalapenos, you're ready to move up to a few serrano peppers, then once you can eat those no problem, you move up to thai peppers, and once you're good with those, you're ready for habaneros," She said.</p><p>"Interesting… and why would you do this to yourself?" Nick asked.</p><p>"Eh, for fun. Also, habaneros have the best flavor of any pepper in the world. It's like the fruitiest, sweetest pepper flavor ever, it's awesome."</p><p>"And then smoke comes out of your ears. I'll believe it when I can actually taste one and not be dying," Tanya said. She had mistakenly tried one of the peppers in hopes of tasting the flavor, but it just hurt.</p><p>"You gotta work your way up to it!" Clare defended. She liked her peppers. Their number was called and Tanya stood up to get it.</p><p>"Would you sit down, I've let you exert yourself enough today," Clare said.</p><p>"Oh, yeah," the cat realized, sitting back down. She looked at her sling'd arm and braced leg and sighed.</p><p>"Sorry Tanya," Judy said, sympathetic.</p><p>"It's ok, shit happens. One moment you're fighting al-" she started, catching herself before mentioning their activities in public. "-a war and the next you're on the ground with a rake through your paw and a broken arm," she said rather deadpan. Judy frowned and Nick stared at the floor, unsure whether there was anything that could cheer her up. Clare noticed all of their expressions when she walked back with the bag.</p><p>"Come on, let's eat some tacos, that'll get you feeling better," she said with an almost devious smile. Tanya cracked a smile too.</p><p>"You know me well…" she said as her mood softened. If Tanya could be called a sucker for anything, it was food, and Clare knew it well. They all started eating, the other three taking a few bites before they stopped to watch Clare eat, waiting for her reaction. She took another bite of her taco and a thick slice of an orange pepper fell out, the wolf immediately picking it up to eat it. She stopped when she realized the others were staring with their mouths open in shock. She rolled her eyes at the group and tossed the pepper in her mouth.</p><p>"I think the fumes are making my eyes burn a little," Tanya said.</p><p>"Oh, would you guys stop it?" Clare joked. Judy started to retort when Nick turned and suddenly pushed himself away from her, backing himself into the corner of the booth. The other three looked at him as he started to hyperventilate and close his eyes.</p><p>"Nick?" Judy asked, scared for him.</p><p>"It's not real… I… It's not real, I'm just going crazy…" he said quietly, starting to calm himself slightly.</p><p>"Nick what?-" Judy started again, the others too shocked to say anything. Nick opened his eyes again and looked at her, shaking his head and putting his elbows on the table, resting his head on his paws.</p><p>"You… you were a rat, Judy… I looked over, and I saw you as a giant rat," he said. The other three looked at each other, stunned. Tanya had a feeling she knew what was happening.</p><p>"Try to see it again," she said. Nick looked at her, confused. "Just try it," she urged. He looked at Judy and tried to focus on seeing a rat, seeing something else. She started blurring slightly but it wasn't like before, so he tried harder. Suddenly the fuzziness disappeared and she was a rat again, wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans. His eyes bulged out of his head.</p><p>"What the hell is goin on here!" He said.</p><p>"Don't worry, it's ok Nick. We need to get out of here though," Tanya said, noting the attention they had drawn. There weren't many other mammals there but those that were had their eyes on the group. They all stood and quickly left, Tanya and Clare cramming into the back of the officer's relatively small squad car. Judy drove and Tanya started talking again, in between bites of a taco.</p><p>"Judy, in the sewer, you were coughing, weren't you? After you saw the spirit?" She asked, followed by a crunch.</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Huh… what if you inhaled Kate? What if you have psychic abilities too, they just aren't the same? Clare is clairvoyant but she isn't seeing what Nick is, I think he might be psychometric. Judy, I think you are a medium, or maybe a conduit," Tanya said.</p><p>"Inhaled? What the-"</p><p>"Well, not inhaled, but somehow absorbed Kate, like became a vessel for her… by literally inhaling her," she said.</p><p>"Ok," Judy said, trying to take it in stride. "So, if that is what happened, what do I do? What's gonna happen?" She asked.</p><p>"Uhhh…" she said, an expert on the topic but not exactly an expert in the practice. Judy gripped the steering wheel harder, disturbed by the whole situation.</p><p>"So why is this all happening? We all went to hell but it's been months, why now?" She asked.</p><p>"I don't know that either…" Tanya said.</p>
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